A 5-step Guide To Set Up Your Gym Business

Jan 12, 2021

A 5-step Guide To Set Up Your Gym Business

With the onset of the lockdown there was a shift of focus on fitness and health, like never before. The lockdown period saw the uprise of fitness challenges on instagram to keep the social media community engaged and fit at the same time. Push-up challenge, plank challenge, sit-up challenge took over the internet, kindling the interest for fitness among many. Though home workouts are a great way to start off your fitness journey, it is important to hit the gym for consistency and personalised training. If you are a fitness enthusiast and want to pursue fitness as a career, this is the right time to do so. In this article we outline the details on how to set up a gym to help entrepreneurs kick start their business goals.

The fitness fad

Even before the pandemic, having a gym membership was a fad among people irrespective of age and gender. The increasingly sedentary human lifestyle defined by 10 hour work shifts, rarely eating home cooked food by ordering-in, going out for dinner every weekend to uphold a social life has paved the way for gyms to ensure some physical activity and retain the balance. Hence it is a wise decision to leverage the situation and open a fitness center. Much like any other business, setting up a gym too requires a lot of strategizing, equipment financing and marketing.

Plan the niche of the gym

Strength training, women’s gym, pilates, yoga and the list is long. Identifying the fitness niche you are going to offer in your gym, depending on where your interest lies and what you are trained in is the first and foremost tip on how to set up a gym . This step depends on basic market research as well your passion and focus to master that fitness niche. Market research is essential in determining the sustenance and individuality of your gym when people search for a fitness trainer near me.

Choose the area of your gym

It's common to see a gym around every corner of the street nowadays, so pick and choose the area of your to-be gym wisely. Study the demographics of the area and see if there would be takers for the fitness training you are offering. For example: if there are lot of young women in an area and there are only unisex gyms in the vicinity it would be great to open an all women’s gym with female fitness trainers. Make sure to pick a place with both residential and commercial prominence where the public can access your gym easily

Hire qualified trainers

The most integral and lucrative part of a gym: personal fitness trainer. This is the most popular reason why people opt for a gym membership as they can get personalised training according to their bodily needs. To provide safe and reliable fitness coaching you need to hire certified trainers who will add the credibility and customer attraction factor to your fitness centre. Hiring a personal fitness trainer can cost anywhere from 10,000 rupees to a lakh a month depending upon their experience and certification. Hiring female fitness trainers in a unisex gym can also be a masterstroke as some women would be more comfortable to workout and communicate their bodily transformations to female instructors.

Next step: Buy gym machines!

The topmost priority in how to set up a gym is to buy gym machines. It is essential to be updated about new technologies and safety standards in fitness equipment to offer a refreshing fitness experience for your members. If you are starting off with a low-budget gym then it is advisable to buy used gym equipment which is in good condition. Used gym equipment reduces your inventory financing and you can use the saved money for gym accessories like centralised air conditioning, music system, wall decor etc. Some essential gym equipment are treadmill, elliptical, free weights, kettlebells, bench press, yoga mats and cable pulleys.

Planning your fitness equipment financing

Now that we have seen the steps of how to set up a gym,  it is important to plan how to finance the business plan. You can take a commercial property loan to lease or rent out the gym space. If you have self-financing options for the gym space and need only equipment financing, then there are several banks and NBFCs that offer business loans for equipment financing. These are unsecured loans which usually come with a high interest rate and some business experience requirements. This factor is a drawback for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start out their business. Due to this reason, a more easier and affordable option is to take a gold loan for commercial property and fitness equipment.

Gold loan: A better alternative?

Gold loans are secured loans as the name itself indicates, where the customer has to pledge gold ornaments and avail a loan amount against it. Since they are secured loans the interest rates are low enabling the borrower to repay the loan with ease. Rupeek is one of the best gold loan companies in India that offers gold loan for business equipment financing at just 0.49% interest rate. Some of the gold loan advantages at Rupeek are:

  • Minimal documentation process enabling easy access of loan amount
  • No prior business experience required to avail loan
  • Instant loan disbursal, get full cash in just 30 minutes.
  • Gold is safely secured in a nearby trusted bank
  • Flexible loan tenures and repayment options available

Using the gold that is available at home you can avail a high loan-to-value ratio at Rupeek and use the money to foray into the fitness industry.

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